"War Neurosis" in the 1920s (Part IV)

Carmen acts on her mother's last words

(These three stories fit together, so I’ll post all three this weekend. Then I’ll skip next weekend and post again the first weekend in May.)

[This story is set in April 1928. The narrator is Riis Evans, who is with his wife Carmen, a psychotherapist, and her brother Francis.]

Monday morning, the tenth of April.  Francis, Carmen, and I are in her medical office in northwest Denver.   It’s not completely dark but all the office lights are turned off and there is just the muted sunlight through the curtains.

On February 12th, just before she breathed her last breath, Carmen’s mother Fidelia leaned toward Carmen’s ear and uttered her last words. “It is your obligation and yours alone to heal your brother Francis.”

When Carmen, taken back, exclaimed, “Mother!”, Fidelia said, “you know it’s true, daughter.”

“That is not how the medical profession works, Mother.”

“Carmen, you are a healer.  And you are the only healer Francis trusts.  You alone have the capacity, the power.  You alone have the responsibility.”

So here we are.

After a few minutes of idle chit-chat between the three of us and some nervous laughter between me and Francis, we begin. 

Carmen’s posture changes, as does her breathing and her tone of voice.  All three become more like Francis’s.  Within a couple minutes, brother and sister are in alignment, in sync.  They are sitting the same way, breathing at the same depth and pace, and talking in the same tone. 

“Place your hands on your knees,” Carmen instructs Francis. 

He complies. 

“Relax.  Get comfortable.” 

He adjusts his body a bit more. 

“Focus on my voice,” she intones.  “Relax.  Quiet your mind.  Calm your whole being.  Relax.  Trust me, trust your own mind, trust the process.”

There is more of this kind of talk over the next minute, then she lifts up her right index finger and says, “follow my finger”.  Francis looks at her finger.  As he watches it move, he begins gliding his eyes from side to side.

After a couple minutes of this, Carmen says to him, “today we are going to draw up some memories.  We are going to remember and experience again some things that still affect you.  We are going to take a journey deeper into your consciousness, deeper into your being.”  

Then, “relax your toes, relax your feet, relax your legs.  Relax your fingers, relax your hands, relax your arms.  Feel the palms of both of your hands melt into your knees.”  And so on. 

Next, “your eyelids are feeling heavy.  You are so comfortable.  You are so calm.  You are feeling so relaxed.”  A couple minutes of this.

Lastly, “Francis, there is a ladder beneath you.  A ladder leading down into the well of your mind, the well of your consciousness, the well of your being, the well of your memory.  Place your foot on the top rung of this ladder.  Secure yourself.  Grab the sides of the ladder.  Now move with your body down the five rungs, one at a time.  Down, down, down.  Move your feet down this ladder, to the second rung.  Move your feet down one more step to the third rung.  Move your feet down one more step to the fourth rung.  Move your feet down one more step to the fifth rung.  And now step off the lowest rung of the ladder, step off into the bottom, onto the floor, of this well.”

Francis’s body moves to each of these commands.  We can sense that Francis is in a different state of mind.  Is it a secure hypnotic trance?  Carmen checks.  “Francis, your hand is light.  Your hand is so light that it is beginning to float.”  His hand rises a couple inches off his knee.  “Your hand is so light that it is floating up into the air.”  His hand rises another foot up, then higher, to up near his shoulders.  She guides him to place his hand back on his knee.  Then she begins his first hypnotic session.